1 Martian 1: Tell us the password!
1 Ishmael: No!
2 Martian 1: Won't talk, huh? I guess we'll have to do this the hard way...
2 Ishmael: Nooo!!!
3 {evil close-up of Martian 1 with an evil gleam in his eye}
4 Martian 2: {at computer, with Ishmael apparently having left the room} "For your security please type the letters and numbers shown in the box." Aaargh! I can never read these things!

I hate those things. Ironically, I use one myself, on the IWC forums, to help prevent spam robots from signing up. Wouldn't the world be a nicer place if you could trust people?

I added a lens flare effect to give the Martian leader an evil glint in his eye in panel 3. He didn't look quite so evil without it.

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2016-03-09 Rerun commentary: This is a brief peek at what this comic would have looked like if directed by J.J. Abrams.

One of my favourite uses of added lens flare is in the classic 1965 comedy The Great Race, which is one of my all-time favourite films, thanks to fond memories of watching it in my childhood, as well as the wonderful performances by Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, and of course Jack Lemmon. It's very much a pantomime style comedy, with a larger-than-life despicable but incompetent villain Doctor Fate (Lemmon), who was the original inspiration for the later creation of Dick Dastardly by the way, and the all-American shinier-than-white hero The Great Leslie, played by Curtis.

When The Great Leslie smiles at women (or the camera), his whiter-than-white teeth glint attractively in the sun, with the added effect of a cross-shaped flare on his teeth (plus a sparkly sound effect).